


No Place Like Home

by Eastofthemoon



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Finding a new home, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Gen, Humor, Post Series, learning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-28 05:45:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11411466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eastofthemoon/pseuds/Eastofthemoon
Summary: Allura finds Earth to be a very strange place, and a part of her wonders if she could ever call it home.





	No Place Like Home

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for Platonic Voltron week on tumblr and today's theme was Home/Exploration.

Allura caught her reflection in the shop window and cringed as she caught a glimpse of her current round-tipped ears.

“They are so hideous,” she whined with a pout.

Pidge groaned as she poked at Allura’s sunhat. “Will you quit complaining how human ears look?”

Keith shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. “Frankly, I’ve never understood what makes them so ‘ugly’ to you anyway.” 

“Yeah!” Lance chimed in as he leaned against a lamppost. “We’ve seen aliens with scales, bug eyes, some that don’t even have eyes, so how could humans have the worst ears to you?”

Allura glared at her reflection again as she tugged at her ears. “They’re just so..round..and flat. I’m amazed you can hear anything with these things-”

Hunk shushed her as he glanced up and down the street. “Will you guys knock it off with all the ‘alien’ talk?” he hissed. “The only reason Coran and the Garrison let Allura leave the castle was if she shape shifted to look like a human and if the rest of us kept our lips shut about it. We don’t want anyone finding out she’s the space princess the news keeps talking about-”

His clamped his mouth shut as two old ladies passed by them, and Hunk gave a shaky wave at them. “Um..nothing to see here, we uh...just a bunch of youngsters with no secrets to have whatsoever.”

The old ladies raised suspicious eyebrows, but paid him no further attention as they entered the nearby corner store.

Hunk sighed as he slumped against the window. “My nerves can not take this. Why did we all agree to come, again?”

Allura felt a twinge of guilt, although it wasn’t her fault the Galaxy Garrison had classified information about her, Coran and Voltron from the 'general public. It was a miracle the Paladins had been able to sneak away and contact their families to explain the situation to them.

If Allura hadn’t been able to prove she could shape shift and ‘blend in’ she would not have been allowed anywhere outside the castle.

To be frank, Allura didn’t understand the great concern. If Earth had always wanted to have contact with beings from other words, then wouldn’t the appearance of the Castle of Lions be something for them to celebrate? Earth, as she was rapidly learning, was an odd place indeed. 

Lance patted his shoulder. “Hunk, relax. No one is going to find out about Allura’s ‘secret identity’.” He pointed across the street. “Besides, judging by that group it looks like there’s a sci-fi convention going on anyway. I doubt Allura will raise any eyebrows in her pink summer dress.”

Allura glanced over, paused and rubbed her eyes to make certain her vision wasn’t being deceived.

Four humans stood across the street, and they were quite peculiar even by the standards of the galaxy at large. One boy wore a robe with a fake sword attached to his belt, a girl was wearing two sticks tipped with fuzzy balls on a headband, another girl wore a strangely designed leather outfit and seemed to have dyed her skin blue, and the other boy wore incredibly horribly designed armor. Allura was certain an Altean child's toy knife could cut through that easily.

From what she had witnessed of current Earth fashion trends - and she had studied quite a bit in order to blend in - their outfits had no rhyme or reason to them.

“What is wrong with those four?” Allura asked as she pointed. “Are they alright?”

Pidge glanced over, blinked and then made a small ‘oh’ as she realized Allura’s meaning. “They’re fine, they’re just wearing costumes.”

“Costumes?” Allura asked as she tilted her head. “You mean for this..sci fi convention?” She received several nods. “And what is that exactly?”

“It’s basically a place where humans get dress up and discuss science fiction stories,” Shiro explained as he approached them with a newspaper tucked under his arm.

“Oh, I see,” Allura said softly as she forced a smile. Why would human feel the need to dress up characters from stories? Did they put on plays at this convention? Was there some ritual or symbolism she was missing? The more time Allura spent on this planet the more confused she felt about it.

Keith’s eyes landed on Shiro’s arm and he moved in closer. “How is the camouflage going?” he asked in a whisper.

Allura put aside her woes about understanding humans as she glanced up in interest. She noted Hunk and Pidge drew closer as well.

Shiro gave a smile as he made a fist with his cybernetic hand that currently looked like any other regular human arm, at least in appearance.

“It’s great, no one has suspected a thing,” he explained. 

“Coran will be pleased to hear that,” Allura said with a smile as she saw the proud smiles on both Hunk and Pidge.

It had taken a lot of hard work for them and Coran to update that Altean cybernetic arm they stumble across in storage, and upgrade it to match Shiro’s needs. The hardest part had been to ensure it was equally as powerful the Galra made arm, but they had succeeded. 

So far, Shiro seemed quite please with his new arm. Allura imagined being able to remove the arm Haggar forced upon him in exchange to one he wanted willingly helped ease the pain slightly of what was done to him.

“Heh, I knew a camouflage mode would be handy,” Pidge said as she tapped the arm. “Now if you let me and Hunk tweak it some more, I bet we could get it-”

“Can we PLEASE save the techno talk for later?” Lance whined as he raised his hands. “I’m happy for Shiro and all, but aren’t we here to have some fun?”

“We’re trying to give Allura a better sense of the area,” Keith muttered as he rolled his eyes. 

“Duh, and what better way to do that than to go shopping?” Lance said as he crossed his arms.

“Uh..I thought we were going to get ice cream?” Hunk said as he raised his head. “Isn’t that the best way to experience Earth culture?”

“I figure we would head to the arcade?” Pidge asked.

“I assumed we were just walking around town,” Keith interjected.

The Paladins began to debate among themselves and seemed to almost forget Allura was there at all. The princess slowly turned her head and looked to Shiro. 

“Help?” she whispered.

Shiro sighed and clapped his hands reminding Allura of her teachers when she was a child. “Guys, enough,” he declared and everyone instantly went silent. “We’re going to do all of that, alright? We don’t have to do everything in one day,.”

The group exchanged pouted looks and then gave a nod.

Allura relaxed slightly. Thank goodness Shiro was the sensible one.  
“Besides,” Shiro said as he helped up the newspaper and pointed to an article. “I thought we take Allura to that sci fi convention. Be good exposure that way too.”

Allura choked and the other Paladins looked as if they swallowed something sour.

“You’re...joking, right?” Hunk asked. “After all that time we spent in space and fighting ACTUAL aliens, you want to go to a sci fi convention?”

Shiro shrugged. “What? I haven’t been to one since I was a kid. It’ll be fun.”

Keith groaned as he covered face with his hand. “Shiro, you are such a nerd sometimes.”

Shiro smiled and looked prepared to argue when a thundering boom echoed.

Allura jumped in alarm and scanned the area for any sign of attack. Was it the Galra? Was it an enemy? However, she saw nothing. Then, in a matter of tics, water poured them at them from the sky.

Everyone around her gave shocked cries and began to run for any shelter they could find, including her paladins.

“Allura, come on!” Pidge insisted as she took her arm and yanked her underneath the front of a store. “You’re going to get soaked.”

Allura’s brain barely what was going on until she was pulled along her paladins. She grimaced over her wet clothing and proceeded to squeeze the water from her hair.

“What the quiznack is that?” she asked as she pointed to the falling water. “That came out of nowhere?”

The Paladins were all attempting to shake off the water from their clothing and bodies, but all paused as they stared at Allura in confusion.

“You..don’t know what that is?” Hunk asked as he pointed.

“Would I be asking if I did?” Allura asked as she finished squeezing the water from her hair and switched to the helm of her dress. Honestly, it took her all morning to pick out this outfit. If she knew she was going to get wet she would have choose more practical clothing for it.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” Shiro said calmly as he flapped his newspaper. “It’s just rain.”

Allura paused and straightened her posture. “Rain?”

“It’s water that falls from the clouds in the sky,” Lance explained as he leaned against the wall. “I forgot, but Coran mentioned to me you didn’t have the same kind of rain on Altea, right?”

“No,” Allura said softly as she looked back out into the downpour. She could hear the rain rattling up and down the streets. It was..strangely soothing.

“Downpour like this shouldn’t last long,” Keith explained he strolled up to her. “See? The rain is slowly down already.”

Allura watched curiously as the rain began to lessen. She wanted to ask more, but with the following silence she felt wrong to do so. If rain was unique to Earth, then the Paladins must have missed it as much as Allura missed the falling rock showers they had on Altea. It didn’t feel right to ruin such a moment.

After a few more moments the rain stopped entirely. Everything that wasn’t covered was drenched, but the rain left a refreshing scent behind that reminded Allura of juniberry flowers that bloomed in the harvest season.

“That..was a bit random,” she said with a small smile, “but not unpleasant.”

“Yeah,” Lance said slowly as he suddenly lifted his eyes to the sky, “and I’m wondering...Ha! There’s one there!”

“There’s what?” Keith asked.

Lance gave an impish grin as he pointed to the sky. “Look! A rainbow!”

Allura’s eyes widened and she immediately glanced up. She gave a small gasp in shock. Streak across the sky were a ray of colours of red, blue, orange, yellow and green for all to see. Allura stared memorized as Hunk touched her shoulder.

“Never seen a rainbow before?” he asked.

“I have,” Allura said slowly, “but only when I played with crystals and sunlight as a child.” She couldn’t take her eyes off it. “I’ve..never seen one this enormous before.”

It also felt so much close, like if she took off running she could find the end of it that she knew didn’t exist. Allura had always loved rainbows as a child and use to love playing with crystals to see how many tiny rainbows she could form. She had ever seen rainbows this huge in her dreams. 

Keith gave a small smirk as he crossed his arms. “Well...welcome to Earth,” he said softly. “We got a lot more where that came from.”

Allura smiled as they stood quietly and stared at the rainbow until it faded away. This planet was confusing, but there were good things about this place after all. Perhaps...maybe eventually..she could see this place as her new home


End file.
